Tag: charity

Jeans for Genes: thought-provoking assembly on why we support this vital charity.

Drama Scholars Revealed: Some of the latest recruits to the Drama department are unveiled. Welcome girls.

Signed Sealed Delivered: Summer Letter Writing Competition winners were announced today. Second Former Alice C, wrote beautifully about her tour of Northumberland and Scotland as the overall winner, and fellow Second Formers’ Sylvie and Eleanor K were runners-up.

Geographers in the Field: Fifth Form GCSE Geographers took to the hills

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party: A chance for the boarders to meet support staff for tea, cake and a fascinating facts quiz which included the question: Which member of staff has a pet snake?

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party: a chance for girls and support staff to get to know each other a little better.

Cooking up a Career Path: Girls had the opportunity to grill Executive Chef Mark Baines on the merits of a career in catering.

Teaching by Example: Proud to share the talent of our incredible Creative Arts Team: Stephen Kinder is currently exhibiting his work at Café Mila in Godalming.

Teaching by Example: Proud to share the talent of our incredible Creative Arts Team: Bruno Di Mario will take part in the ACAVA Annual Open Studio initiative at his Studio in Wimbledon this coming weekend which coincides with Merton Arts Festival.

Open Day: With over 80 families already booked in, Open Day preparations are well underway for Saturday 29 September.

Following the dazzling evening of talent and creativity at last week’s GCSE and Lower Sixth Private Art View, we are excited to showcase the outstanding level of Art, Textiles and Photography work created by our super skilled A Level students.

Excited Head Beekeeper Nigel reported that there are now two viable colonies that should grow over the summer, perhaps providing honey in a few months. He also carried out a spot of Queen marking – quite a tricky undertaking with a moving bee!!

Priors Field are Chemistry champs! On Thursday, Second Formers Natasha, Alex, Isabel J and Izzy H beat 19 other schools to win the University Challenge at the Salters Festival of Chemistry which took place at the University of Brighton.

Curious madness at the First Formers Alice in Wonderland themed social – ‘Eat Me’ cookies, ‘Drink Me’ liquid popcorn, meringue mushrooms and many other magical snacks were consumed before the girls split into teams to compete in the themed games – including Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum three legged race!

Curious madness at the First Formers Alice in Wonderland themed social – ‘Eat Me’ cookies, ‘Drink Me’ liquid popcorn, meringue mushrooms and many other magical snacks were consumed before the girls split into teams to compete in the themed games – including Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum three legged race!

Curious madness at the First Formers Alice in Wonderland themed social – ‘Eat Me’ cookies, ‘Drink Me’ liquid popcorn, meringue mushrooms and many other magical snacks were consumed before the girls split into teams to compete in the themed games – including Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum three legged race!

Curious madness at the First Formers Alice in Wonderland themed social – ‘Eat Me’ cookies, ‘Drink Me’ liquid popcorn, meringue mushrooms and many other magical snacks were consumed before the girls split into teams to compete in the themed games – including Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum three legged race!

Curious madness at the First Formers Alice in Wonderland themed social – ‘Eat Me’ cookies, ‘Drink Me’ liquid popcorn, meringue mushrooms and many other magical snacks were consumed before the girls split into teams to compete in the themed games – including Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum three legged race!

Curious madness at the First Formers Alice in Wonderland themed social – ‘Eat Me’ cookies, ‘Drink Me’ liquid popcorn, meringue mushrooms and many other magical snacks were consumed before the girls split into teams to compete in the themed games – including Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum three legged race!

First Form Latin students studied the influence of Roman culture on local British settlers and became archaeologists examining 2,000 year old artefacts during their visit to Fishbourne Roman Palace on Tuesday.

Many of our Second Formers are enjoying a different educative experience today on ‘Take your daughter to work day’, a wonderful opportunity to gain insight into the world of work.

Futures were at the fore on Thursday as Fourth Formers met with the Sixth Form Leadership Team to consider their options after GCSEs.

Last weekend, Third Former Neave mobilised a group of friends (including Saskia, Lily, Lily-Belle, Petra, Fleur, George and Hope) to walk 20km through the Royal Parks to raise over £2,000 for Shooting Star Chase. Well done Girls!

PF Equestrian Club accomplished sixth place in the recent Eventers’ Challenge Finals at Hickstead, a fantastic achievement from such a large class of competition– 41 teams and about 180 riders from all over the UK.

Amazing news from our Tennis Academy that First Former Sophie Q has a new LTA ranking of Top 21, having risen from Top 52 in only 8 months.

Rehearsals continue in preparation for the Lower School Production of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Moonlit Mash Up’. Tickets are available on Eventbrite – www.priorsfield.eventbrite.co.uk

The Art department open their doors tonight to showcase the amazing art, photography and textiles work produced by our GCSE and AS Level students

Third Form Geographers investigated coastal processes, landforms and management at Hengistbury Head

First Former Sophie Q was both runner up in singles at Wimbledon tennis tournament and also winner in doubles at Chiswick tennis tournament for her grade and category. She now ranks UK top 27 in the 12&U.

Second Formers applied mathematical concepts and understanding to roller coaster rides at Chessington World of Adventures before climbing aboard and having fun.

Second Formers applied mathematical concepts and understanding to roller coaster rides at Chessington World of Adventures before climbing aboard and having fun.

Sixth Former Phoebe raised £1702 to fund her Tinga Tinga expedition by walking 50km along the South Downs. As she beat her £1,500 target by £202 – she is kindly donating the extra directly to the Tinga Tinga fund.

Amazing effort from some generous Third Formers who walked twenty km in the Shooting Star Chase Sunrise Walk to raise money for the charity

Sport Relief Riotous Race

Before they spent time at an important UCAS presentation looking forward to their exciting futures, the Sixth Form organised a fun run with a twist on Wednesday to raise money for Sport Relief. They draughted in some teaching legends to take part in a ‘High Heel Race’. The winner by a square mile in speed and style was Ricky, our Head Chef, who got off to a cracking start, wearing a beautiful pink dress! It was a good effort from all the other competitors; Mrs Allen, Mr Butler, Mrs Horton, Mr Marrison and Mrs McGarry but the pack couldn’t catch up with the breakneck baker!

History Conference

Mrs Haddock reports ‘After a successful rendez-vous under the clock at Waterloo Station I and a select party of Sixth Form Historians headed off to be enlightened on the finer details of Russia’s rulers at a revision conference on Russia 1855-1964.

The speakers were all leaders in their field and provided some fascinating insights into Russian History as well as some top tips on question analysis. The talks covered key examination questions including the collapse of Tsarism and the success or otherwise of Stalin’s rule. Inevitably, comparisons between Stalin and Putin were made and we came away with the depressing thought that, perhaps the very nature of Russia and its people, leant itself to some form of strong leadership. The discussion that followed was testament to the intellectual ability of the girls and their capacity to absorb lots of information over a short time period. A day well-spent!’

In this morning’s assembly, Deric Quaile, President of the Guildford Lions Club presented seven of the girls with their Young Leaders in Service awards, taking the number of awards completed by pupils at the school to 12. Well done to Sixth Formers Bethan, Katie, Holly G, Jinyan, Emma, Wing Sze and Chloe!

The girls did a variety of activities including one to one respite for disabled children, teaching French and Chinese as foreign languages, marshaling at park runs, assisting in the school library, undertaking voluntary work in charity shops, and supervising junior boarding.

The Lions Young Leaders in Service Awards (also known as YLiS) recognise young people between the ages of 11 and 18 for their community service in a 12-month period. They receive a Bronze (up to 50 hours), Silver (up to 100 hours) or Gold (100 or more hours) award. This is an internationally recognised award and encourages young people to volunteer their time to help others in their community.

Oxford Masterclass in Blue Sky Thinking

Last Friday some of our Fourth Formers attended a Gifted and Talented conference with university style lectures at Bloomsbury Cathedral where the audience were challenged by the experienced gifted educator Julie Arliss and lecturers from the Universities of Oxford, Aberdeen and London to develop their critical thinking skills.

Checking in to Chess Challenge

Following last week’s round seven of the UK Schools Chess Challenge, Third Former Emilia and Fourth Former Carlotta found themselves in joint first place with nineteen out of twenty-one points. We held a tense playoff between the girls on Wednesday to find our ultimate champion, and despite the game being closely fought, Emilia emerged as the winner. First Former Maddie was in third place with nineteen out of twenty-one points.

Well done to all the twenty-one girls that have taken part over the last seven weeks. Dr Smith would like to thank Lower Sixth Former Sammy (last year’s school champion) for being assistant referee this year. Participants who would like to go forward into the Megafinal round (competing against players from other local schools) should speak to Dr Smith before the end of term. This is only recommended for girls who scored 15 points or more.

We will be presenting the trophy to Emilia in assembly on Friday 23 March.

Delight Donations

A few of our Sixth Formers returned with Mrs Troup to Waverley Abbey School to pick up a boot full of generous book donations for the charity Delight. The girls led an assembly at the school a couple of weeks ago on behalf of the charity which collects books for disadvantaged children in Surrey. Thank you so much to all the pupils and staff at Waverley Abbey, we are now sorting the donations into age-appropriate groups before distributing them to Delight. For more information about the wonderful charity Delight please go to http://delightcharity.org.uk/

Delight Assembly

Some of the lower Sixth Formers visited Waverley Abbey to lead an assembly encouraging the children to donate books to disadvantaged children in Surrey as part of the Delight charity campaign.

Geographical Association Lecture

A Level Geographers attended a lecture at the local branch of the Geographical Association on Tuesday evening. Jonathan Schifferes, the Associate Director in Public Services and Communities from the RSA spoke about urban regeneration using case studies stretching from New York to Guildford train station!

Mr Taylor reports ‘As part of Student Volunteering Week, we welcomed back PF Old Girl Jess Best to present an assembly on her charity work and to talk to the Lower Sixth Geographers. Since leaving Prior’s Field in 2013, Jess has achieved a degree in Human Geography and Masters in Social Science Research Methods in Environmental Planning and, having recently returned from volunteering in Nicaragua for three months, she wanted to inspire others to go and make change too. Whilst there, Jess was working on a water, sanitation and hygiene project, constructing latrines and teaching about the implications of poor sanitation/hygiene. Prior to this, she was volunteering in Bolivia alongside conducting research for her Masters dissertation and helping local children by working on social development projects to help improve confidence in themselves. Jess also believes that helping others can also be done at home, for example she ran a dance club in a primary school in Cardiff for a year, after being President of the dance society at her university.

The overall message from Jess’ presentation is that anyone can go and help those less fortunate than themselves, anywhere, and no project is too small to make a difference. Jess certainly inspired our girls.’

On Tuesday evening the Mathematics Department held its Spring Term Master Class on 3D Escher tessellations. The girls enjoyed a presentation on the famous “Sky and Water” illusion before making the first two platonic solids – the tetrahedron and cube – covered with tessellating seals and seahorses that went over edges. At the end of the session the girls were presented with Escher inspired flexagons from the Singapore Museum of Art and Technology.

DofE Gold – Kayaking training

Over half-term, some of the upper school girls took to the freezing Thames to hone their kayaking skills as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Gold expedition training. Despite the cold, wet weather and lack of hot water at their campsite in Marlow, the kayakers spent a couple of days on the river determinedly practising, including some capsizing drills into the icy cold water. Well done girls, you’ll be ready for sunny Croatia in October!

First Form trip to Nursing Home

At the beginning of the week, eleven First Formers took a trip along Priorsfield Road to the Robertson Nursing Home. The local residents adored talking with the girls and were thrilled when they performed some musical pieces. Mrs Baines was very proud of the girls who were all excellent ambassadors for the school.

Third and Fourth Form Huxley Squad meeting

The Third and Fourth Form Huxley Squad girls met this week and were encouraged to develop thinking skills and team work. They were given the challenge to stack 10 plastic cups without touching them with any part of their body. Supplied with 4 lengths of string and an elastic band they had to work as a team to build a tower.

The girls raised a staggering £3,082.91 for a variety of charitable causes last term by virtue of some enterprising and successful events and fundraisers. From Sixth Formers rowing the length of the Channel on a rowing machine in aid of our Tinga Tinga charity to a spooktacular Halloween bake sale collecting money for Disasters Emergency Committee for the Rohingya Refugees. Thank you to everyone who donated and took part in any of our charitable events.